Olive Oil and Diabetes

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder where there is a disturbance in the way the body uses food that has been digested for growth and energy.

Type 1 diabetes is to do with auto-immunity and very little can be done to prevent it. However the more common Type 2 diabetes is related to age, family history of diabetes, obesity, and a lack of exercise and much can be done to prevent and manage it.

Without proper care and attention, diabetes can affect all parts of the body and can lead to stroke, kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, blindness, foot problems and neuropathy .

 Much research has been done on the link between diet and diabetes . Findings have shown that the Mediterranean diet can be helpful to patients with a new diabetes diagnosis or those who are at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

The Harvard School of Public Health, Olways and the European Office of the World Health Organisation found that those living in Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Southern Italy have lower rates of diabetes and heart disease compared to countries like the USA and India.

They also identified that the main components to a Mediterranean diet include:

• Seasonal fresh and locally grown fruits and vegetables. These maximize antioxidant content of these foods.

• Plenty of fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grain cereals, potatoes, millets, and seeds.

• Olive oil is the main oil used and replaces other fats including butter and margarine.

• Daily consumption of small amounts of cheese and yogurt.

• Low to moderate amounts of fish and poultry eaten twice a week and only 340-450 gm of red meat per month.

• 1-2 glasses of wine per day, normally with meals, but this is optional.


Green Olives and Type 2 Diabetes

Gotta Love Olives for Their Nutritional Benefits

Growing up, my brother and I used to embarrass my mother greatly whenever we would go to a restaurant that had a salad bar. We’d both go through the line and return with a plate full of some greens, some carrots and tomatoes, some celery, and LOTS of olives. Mom would just roll her eyes at both of us, but we’d both finish our plates.


It turns out that my brother and I were ahead of our time in embracing a health food. The George Mateljan Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation with no commercial interests or advertising, reported the benefits as:
Olives have many health-protective nutrients. “The overall conclusion from these studies is exciting for anyone who loves olives of all varieties,” the foundation reported. “Greek-style black olives, Spanish-style green olives, Kalamata-style olives, and may different methods of olive preparation provide us with valuable amounts of many different antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients.
One olive phytonutrient, hydroxytyrosol, has been linked to both the prevention of cancer and of bone loss. “These findings are fascinating, since consumption of a Mediterranean Diet has long been associated with decreased risk of osteoporosis, and olives often find themselves on center stage in Mediterranean Diet studies,” the foundation explained.
Olives and olive leaves have been used to treat inflammatory problems because they function as anti-histamines at a cellular level.

In addition, the foundation noted that one cup of olives provides 25% of a person’s RDA of iron, 20% of vitamin E, and more than 15% of dietary fiber and copper. According to the foundation, one cup of olives has slightly more than 150 calories.

Many people worry about olives because they are considered high-fat; however, most of that fat is oleic acid, which is a mono unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) while the rest is smaller amounts of linoleic acid (which is an essential fatty acid) and alpha-linoleic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid). In other words, you're eating the good type of fat that reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease as well as decreases in blood cholesterol, including LDL cholesterol (the lousy cholesterol that's bad for you).


Much of this is not surprising considering that olive oil continues to receive positive accolades. A recent article by NPR reporter Scott Hensley described a French study that suggested that olive oil could help reduce the stroke risk in the elderly. The study, which included 7,000 participants who were 65 years and older, analyzed how much olive oil was consumed by participants and their rate of strokes. The researchers found that after adjusting the data for other risk factors, study participants who used a lot of olive oil had a 41% lower risk of stroke than those who didn’t use this oil; however, NPR also noted that only 148 strokes were recorded during the five years of the study. "A lot of olive oil" was defined as using olive oil for both cooking and dressing. People who used olive oil only for cooking or for dressing were considered having moderate use. If people didn’t use olive oil for either purpose, they were classified as none.

Still, you need to be careful about the amount of olive oil that you use. Dr. Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic warned, “...even healthier fats like olive oil are high in calories, so use them only in moderation. Choose MUFA-rich foods such as olive oil instead of other fatty foods — particularly butter and stick margarine — not in addition to them. And remember that you can't make unhealthy foods healthier simply by adding olive oil to them.”

Olive oil also has a limited shelf life since the healthy phytonutrients and the taste can degrade over time. Therefore, it’s recommended that you use the olive oil within a year of when you open it. Also, be aware that heat, light and air may also affect the taste and nutrients so you want to store olive oil in a dark, room-temperature cupboard or the refrigerator.

You don’t have to go overboard like my brother and I did in eating gobs of olives when we could (but then, we just liked them and weren’t aware of the health benefits). Just know olives provide good fats that can, in moderation, be really beneficial to your health.

Olive oil Attacks a Root Cause of Diabetes

f you are a diabetic, you know that controlling blood sugar has a huge impact on how you feel. Did you also know that controlling inflammation has a huge impact on how you heal? That’s right, stabilizing blood sugar and lowering inflammation over the long term are two of the most critical things you can do to recover from diabetes. Lucky for us, extra virgin olive oil does both.

1. Olive oil rolls back blood sugar levels. A 2006 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine put 772 people on either a low-fat diet, a Mediterranean diet emphasizing extra virgin olive oil, or a Mediterranean diet emphasizing nuts. Those on the olive oil and nut diets had significantly lower blood sugar levels than those on the low-fat diet.

2. Olive oil tames inflammation, one of the root causes of diabetes. Researchers now believe that systemic inflammation is a primary cause of diabetes. In part, that’s because inflammation destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. So getting inflammation under control is essential for healing this disease. The study mentioned above found that the olive oil diet put the brakes on C-reactive protein, an indicator of systemic inflammation.

3. A peppery finish means anti-inflammatory power. This is how we learned that olive oil’s “ zing” is a good thing. One day a scientist visiting Sicily got a taste of fresh-pressed olive oil. He noticed a peppery, ticklish sensation at the back of his throat. That surprised him, because it was nearly identical to the “sting” of liquid non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) he’d worked with in previous clinical trials. It made him wonder if olive oil’s peppery nutrient was also an anti-inflammatory.

The researcher learned that “the zing” was caused by oleocanthal. And indeed, it blocked inflammatory enzymes in the body. His team discovered that 50 milliliters of olive oil (about 3 1/2 Tbsp.) has the anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving power of a 200-mg tablet of ibuprofen. Even better: it has zero side effects. This research was published in the prestigious science magazine Nature.

3. Olive oil helps reduce weight. If you worry that olive oil in your diet might cause you to gain weight, you can relax. Olive oil is one of the fats that helps you lose weight because it boosts your metabolism (making you burn fat) and it helps you feel full (making it easier to put down your fork). That’s important, because less weight means less risk of diabetes.

Even though this seems to contradict everything we’ve ever learned about fat making us fat, studies shows it works. For example, Harvard research published in the New England Journal of Medicine. compared the waistline measurements of a group who consumed moderate amounts of olive oil to those on a low-fat diet. Those who enjoyed olive oil lost 9 pounds and trimmed 3 inches from their waistlines while the low-fat group gained 6 pounds and added 1 inch.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) has the most “medicine”. Freshly pressed, extra virgin oils are by far the most medicinal. The oleocanthal is strongest just after the olives are pressed, and then fades down to nothing after a year. And you simply can’t beat the flavor of fresh olive oils. They don’t have that “dead” oily feel, but instead they are light, and sometimes buttery or “grassy” with undertones of wood or fruit, like a fine wine. That makes them much easier to get down the hatch! Pour olive oil on salads, steamed vegetables or stir-fries after the cooking is done, put it in dips, or take it by the spoonful.